IPFW in the News Sept. 23-27, 2013

1. Journal Gazette, Sept. 27, 2013

Fort Wayne is set to receive a minor facelift next year. That’s when 50 sculptural bike racks will pop up throughout the city, public art displays that not only will be functional but will be in celebration of IPFW’s 50th anniversary. Beginning next week, members of the public will be able to get a sneak peak at models of these sculptures.

2. Journal Gazette, Sept. 27, 2013

The stage production of “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is the story of five bridesmaids who find a common bond as they hide out from an over-the-top wedding. Decked out in putrid pastel dresses, these women may sound like the storyline of a generic “chick flick,” but the only frill audiences should see on stage will be made of taffeta. Brandishing a dark sense of humor, “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” is a contemporary comedy drama that tests the limits with its topics. Director John O’ Connell, the new dean of IPFW’s college of visual and performing arts, says that the “dramedy” is centered on a predominantly female cast.

3. Journal Gazette, Sept. 26, 2013

A check of the watch. A high five with the TinCaps’ mascot, Johnny. A shake of the hands with a tournament organizer. The seconds that immediately followed Crystina Ridenour crossing the finish line at the Fort4Fitness half marathon last year are so blasé – she seems anything but out of breath – that it’s enough to make any novice runner jealous. But nothing about running is easy for Ridenour, even if she has won the event three years straight, doing it last year with a time of 1 hour, 21 minutes, 32 seconds. She’s certainly accomplished – the native of Valparaiso had a star-studded career for IPFW until 2010 – but it hasn’t been easy integrating her running into her post-college life.

4. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept. 25, 2013

Athena's current administrator-and therefore chief villain in the eyes of the academic establishment-is Van Coufoudakis, a Greek-American and a dean emeritus at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne. A sinewy 6-foot-5, the 75-year-old spent the past year traversing the country he had left as a teenager, visiting every campus from the mountainous north, near Bulgaria and Turkey, to those scattered across the islands of Greece's three seas.

5. @AASCU, Sept. 25, 2013

Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) has received a $365,300 estate gift designated for the Chancellor's discretion. The gift is the first contribution to a new Honors Program Endowment that will directly support student research, creative inquiry and intellectual discovery.

A provisional patent has been filed by Abdullah Eroglu, associate professor of electrical engineering, and three undergraduate electrical engineering students, who graduated in May. The title of the invention is the RF Signal Meter which is a hybrid power and impedance measurement device, also called "Integrated scalar power meter and reflectometer.

6. News-Sentinel, Sept. 25, 2013

IPFW was awarded a 2014 Military Friendly Schools designation by Victory Media, the media entity for military personnel transitioning into civilian life. The designation means IPFW is in the top 20 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools in the country that service America's military service members, veterans and spouses as students and ensure their success on campus.

8. Journal Gazette, Sept. 24, 2013

My first three sessions in the General Assembly have seen no shortage of controversial subjects. Whether debating right to work, collective bargaining for teachers or the legalization of raw milk, my email inbox has had its share of opinionated letters. Right up there on that list is the subject of creating an autonomous IPFW. Arguments are usually split down the middle. Some see IPFW as a unique institution with specific, and often unfulfilled, needs, which warrants giving it more freedom. Just as many others do not want to separate IPFW from its prestigious parent schools.

11. Frost Illustrated, Sept. 24, 2013

Charles Augusta Jones, 66, of Fort Wayne, died Monday, Sept. 2, 2013 in the Marion VA Hospital. He was born in Fort Wayne to the late Willie and Ruth (Washington) Jones. He was a teacher and did a lot of volunteer work for theatrical and drama groups. He also wrote a number of plays. Mr. Jones, who attended Indiana University, Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) had a keen interest in history, visiting and supporting the African/African American History Museum and researching family history, including his mother’s role in the founding of the city’s first African American-established credit union in the city.

12. Purdue Today, Sept. 24, 2013

Elaine Blakemore is fascinated by gender development in children -- and how that development can affect their entire adult lives. Blakemore is a professor of psychology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. She has been studying children's gender development since the 1970s, teaches budding psychologists at IPFW and mentors junior faculty members as they navigate the promotion and tenure process.

13. The New Yorker, Sept. 23, 2013

In the September 16th issue of the magazine, I reviewed two books, by Thomas Doherty and Ben Urwand, devoted to the relationship of the Hollywood studios to Nazism in the nineteen-thirties. One of the books, Urwand’s “The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler,” is so recklessly misleading that my point-by-point critique of it, I now realize, needs some additional detail. In this post, I want to do two things: offer a partial list of Urwand’s omissions and blunders; and make public some research on one aspect of these tormented issues by Steven Carr, of Indiana University-Purdue University. Carr, as well as Thomas Doherty, has a much broader and better-informed view of the matter than Urwand. (I use Professor Carr’s material with his permission.)

14. Necn.com, Sept. 23, 2013

An organization named Freedom Indiana has formed to campaign against the amendment and is receiving money and public support from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and Columbus-based Cummins Inc. Surveys like Miller's are a way for interest groups to apply pressure to lawmakers, said Andrew Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. "The implied threat is if you're in a district where your position is wrong, watch out, because your position may come back to haunt you," Downs said. Some lawmakers are keeping an eye on changing public attitudes toward same-sex couples.

15. Journal Gazette, Sept. 23, 2013

The 23-member committee examining governance of the state’s regional campuses meets Wednesday in Indianapolis. Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, is co-chairman of the panel, which has a special focus on IPFW. The General Assembly has been studying IPFW’s relationship with its parent campus, Purdue University, since former Chancellor Michael Wartell was forced into retirement in the year he turned 65. Initial discussions of autonomy for the Fort Wayne campus have evolved into a push for greater control over its authority in establishing graduate-level programs.

16. Journal Gazette, Sept. 23, 2013

If the plan to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal continues apace, it won’t be the first time diplomacy has enabled potential belligerents to take a step away from war. We just don’t always hear about it. “I think it really is more common than we might think,” said IPFW’s James Toole.

17. News-Sentinel, Sept. 22, 2013

Editor's note: This week's Page Turner reader interview is with Ellen Cutter, director of the Community Research Institute at IPFW.

“I'm delighted to talk with you about books. I just read 'The Coming Jobs War,' by Jim Clifton. He is the chairman of Gallup and will be a speaker for our Omnibus Series (Nov. 12). Members of several organizations and agencies are reading this book right now since he will be here and will be covering the subject — and answering questions.

18. News-Sentinel, Sept. 21, 2013

The strength is in the pack. Yes, this might be the most popular cliché in the sport of cross country, but sometimes there is just no denying it. At Friday’s Indiana Intercollegiates, that was evident for the IPFW women’s squad. The Mastodons finished best-ever fourth place in the meet at Indiana University, in a competition that brings together nearly all of the state’s college cross country programs.